Impact of using applications in chemistry learning: evaluation for leveling new university students

Abstract

The incorporation of educational technological applications in the teaching-learning processes has generated great expectations in the achievement of academic objectives. The main objective of the research was to implement a leveling strategy that includes the use of recommended and freely accessible applications for the study of basic chemistry topics, using a quasi-experimental quantitative methodology. Through a focus group interview, ten chemistry teachers from high school and university level identified essential topics to design a pretest. The pre-test was applied to 200 students who previously took admission exams to the Ecuadorian public university to careers related to science and engineering during five academic periods between August 2021 and September 2023. The leveling strategy included a micro-curricular planning in which only the experimental group used technological applications for one hour and forty minutes per week. After 4 workweeks of leveling activities with emphasis on the main deficiencies detected in the pre-test, a post-test was carried out that showed an improvement in the students' overall score of 3.30 points. Significant differences were identified between the post-test of the control group and the experimental group.